It wasn't your imagination, there were no parking officers issuing tickets in downtown Reno last year

While parking officers are again issuing tickets near the Washoe County Court House, Reno's bare-bones parking enforcement team was ordered last year not to issue parking tickets in downtown Reno because of malfunctioning parking kiosks.

Police Chief Steve Pitts told that to the Reno City Council on Wednesday. His staff of three parking enforcement officers (down from six in 2010) were instead ordered to focus their efforts on residential parking around the University of Nevada, Reno while responding to a variety of calls for service around the city.

Pitts said he directed the parking staff to stop issuing tickets in downtown Reno because digital parking kiosks, "would create a validity problem for the city."

In other words, the tickets were being dismissed because the kiosks weren't working correctly. As a result, Reno's parking revenue dramatically dropped as the city issued fewer citations.

For example, in 2010, when the city employed six parking enforcement officials, 69,000 citations were issued with a potential $1.1 million in potential collections for the city. Ultimately the city collected just under $400,000 — about a 30 percent rate of return.

In 2012, the three remaining parking enforcement officers issued 11,000 citations. Despite a $592,000 potential collection for the city just $174,000 was paid — again, about a 30 percent rate of return.

Reno Public Works Director John Flansberg parking enforcement officers have been issuing tickets for the downtown kiosk system near the Washoe County Court House since Jan. 7.

He said 66 citations were issued in one day, for example.

"We wouldn't be writing the tickets if we didn't feel confident to uphold them," Flansberg said.

The company behind the downtown parking kiosks, Curb System, is expected to address the Reno City Council in April.